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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Another good one

It was a nice (if quiet) Christmas at my house. I have no complaints whatsoever!

Christmas Eve I had to work, of course, but I have to admit that the three merchandise managers (of which I am one) didn't do much at all. The store wasn't terribly busy, there was a lot of staff on hand, so we spent the day casually scanning the stockroom for clearance, taking breaks to go out into the mall for last minute gift shopping, eating cookies and treats in the break room, and generally having a good time together. I am so very grateful for the other two merch managers this year; we all get along great and help each other deal with the stress of a generally bad work environment and a difficult ASM and store manager. I got them small gifts, and also one for the full time Children's Lead because I like her a lot, too. I got the idea for them from Pinterest:

These gift bags with bears wearing scarves made me laugh, so that's what I put the gifts in. I added the conversation bubble with "Cheers!" and each person's name. These drinks were a big hit!

I got home just before 8pm and Gregg was already here. We had a ton of food, most of which I had bought ready-made. Every year I get a small mini ham from Honeybaked Ham, and it's delicious. We also had veggies and dip, crockpot meatballs, an assortment of nice cheeses and crackers, fresh pineapple, deviled eggs, homemade cranberry sauce with mandarin oranges and walnuts, pickles and olives, assorted cookies and candies, benne (sesame) seed wafers, sugared pecans, and on and on. We always eat well on Christmas Eve!

I only got a couple of pictures of the food but we had loads more. That last photo was of my third rum and Coke of the evening. I had bought wine, but never ended up drinking it, so later today when Marla comes over we'll get into that!

Christmas Day was nice, too. We had loads of leftovers (we still do, in fact) and Gregg had brought home a huge bagful of dog treats from the pet store on Christmas Eve for Ginger and George. Marco got a big shiny toy with a bell on the bottom that he loves. I had gone to see my parents a few days before Christmas so there was no need to leave home, and we didn't. We stayed in pjs until early afternoon, ate, watched movies, played with the dogs, and then went on two long walks with them. The weather was unseasonably warm that afternoon. Although I prefer cold weather on Christmas, I had to admit that walking around the neighborhood park in short sleeves was kind of nice.

A mild winter day at the park.

Ginger and her favorite human. Look how happy she is!

Getting the dogs to look at me for a photo is hard. They don't like my camera nonsense!

After another walk when the sun went down, we settled in for the evening. I had to go to bed early; my wake up time for the 26th was 4am! The other two merch managers and I had to go to work at 5am to take down all of the holiday promotions and set up the clearance sale. I know that sounds horrible, but it wasn't too bad. The store didn't open until 9:00, and didn't get busy until noon, and we were all off at 1:30pm. I came home, had a ham sandwich, took a long nap, and then had another good evening with Gregg and the animals. I'm off today. Marla is coming over later this afternoon for wine and talk. She's always so busy with family that we always wait until a day or two after Christmas to get together. I'm looking forward to seeing her!

So it's been a good Christmas! I hope it has been for all of you, too!

Such a fun idea for the gifts for your friends. I rarely buy gift wrap (I still have a lot) and wrap many of my gifts Furoshiki (Japanese wrapping in cloth) or use a perforated brown paper that moving companies use to wrap. But. . . . I bought the same Bear Bag ! I loved it ! We have a long running joke about the fact my Japanese son is Kuma = bear in Japanese and their daughter is kuma-chan (little bear) so I am always on the lookout for cute bear card, bags or wrapping paper.Your day sounds lovely and sometimes quiet holidays are the best. Good luck with the after Christmas sales.

Thanks for pulling back the curtains and letting us look into your Christmas Jennifer. I think that all retail workers should get three days off at Christmastime. We don't need all this damnable shopping.

I agree 100% about the shopping! I bought a few gifts for close family, but tried to do it with as little rush and fuss as possible. I enjoy Christmas most when there's less focus on material things and more time spent with people I care about. I try to keep presents simple--mostly small tokens of appreciation for people I care about.

Jennifer, your gift combo is a great idea...and the presentation looked so good, too.

Isn't it odd to have a span of strange warm weather at Christmas?

Your description of your before and after Christmas work situation brought back some memories. I admit to staying away from shops this year as Christmas drew near. And the "after" sales...no way! I so understand what keeps retail propelled. Bravo to you and your colleagues. xo

Your foond sounds and looks yummy, and so does the drink composed of coffee and Bailey's. They offer something like that here in Cafés, too, and every now and then I have one as a treat on a particularly cold day.I really like Bailey's - especially poured over walnut ice cream!

It is good to know work wasn't too bad, and you had the chance to sit down for some treats with colleagues you really like.

Walking around in short sleeves? We've had temps around freezing point now; no snow, but cold enough for me NOT to go running (I tend to get nosebleeds when I run and the air is too cold).Lovely food here, too, and some leftovers as well!

PS: I am glad you and Marly get together. She and her husband certainly have been thinking more than once of what could have been their little girl's first Christmas. So important that she has good friends such as you.